Hola Elder

Dear Family,

This has been a cool week. We've had quite a lot of opportunities to give service.

 

First off, on Tuesday and Wednesday we helped install a wheelchair ramp for somebody in the ward. Most of the work was done by a member of the ward who does this kind of construction for a living and thus actually understood what needed to be done, but we were able to lend a hand often-enough. During the moments where all I could do was just sit and watch, I pondered about how Nephi and Moses and Adam were all received revelation and instructions on how to build things. We had the chance to be a bit more active the second day, since digging a post-hole for a hand rail is not a very technical task. I'll send you some pictures of me working on it. The hole was surprisingly deep, to say the least.

Secondly, on Wednesday and Friday we did some yardwork for a recent widower that somebody referred to us. He's a really nice guy, but he's having some trouble given how close he was to his wife. For instance, when we were pulling weeds in his backyard, he gave us a couple plush knee-rest thingies so we wouldn't get wet or dirty. One of them was a reserved, vaguely-masculine, solid color, and the other had a girlish flower pattern. He really likes us when we come over, so we're hoping that sometime he'll let us teach him sometime. 

Also on Friday, we saved somebody's life. We were walking down a street, and some really guy saw us and called us to help him. He was very old, laying down in his front doorway, and said he couldn't breathe. We immediately called the ambulance, gave him a blessing, and then waited until the situation was resolved before leaving. The whole episode took only about 15 minutes.

Saturday I was on exchanges with another missionary, this time Elder Bowles. We also had deep cleaning of our apartment that day, which was fun. Now our shower looks like it's no longer the nemesis to feet everywhere. And apparently some stuff that I though was just sloppily done caulking was actually some unholy form of soap. (Don't ask.)

Recently the mission president has authorized us all to make mormon.org profiles. Mine should be up within a few weeks, as soon as I figure out how to condense my vaguely-existential ramblings (the "Why'm I a Mormon" part) under 2000 characters.

Proselyting-wise, this week wasn't super exciting, and I feel like I've written enough for now, so:

Sincerely,

- Elder Oeste

And so it begins...

Steve and the sod cutter.  Let the games begin.

Bend with your knees! Bend with your knees!

Dirt. I imagine we'll be getting well acquainted this summer.

Are we there yet?

Rolling right along.

Make a left turn at Albuquerque.

Even Danny pitched in for a bit (thus proving that we still live in an age of miracles).

Secret Asian Man

Hola Familia!

It's been a great first week in the Santa Gertrudes Ward. It's an English ward, but it's super awesome. Most of our work is done in the southern portion of the area, which is just a normal suburban-city area. The northern half of the area, La Habra Heights, is a huge, sprawling hill-type area that makes Getchell Hill look like a teeny-little ghetto in comparison. For the sake of gas mileage and time and such, we normally only work up there a couple days per week. One interesting thing is that the mission president has authorized us to take some out-of-mission routes to go up to that area when necessary. It's kind of weird driving through "outer darkness".

Anyhow, the work in the area has been great. Elder Jeon has been in this area for 5 transfers already (~7.5 months), which makes for 9 months by the end of this current transfer (note to self: it's weird to think that would have been my year mark if it weren't for the whole jaw debacle). The president has already told him that this will be his last transfer in the area (most likely), so Elder Jeon has really been focusing on getting me to meet as many people as possible: members, investigators, former investigators, potential investigators; the list goes on... I already feel like I have a pretty good handle on the area now (at least geographically).

Elder Jeon is really cool. He's originally from Korea, but his family moved to the states when he was 14, so English is his second language. He's glad to have me with him so he can actually have some language-study time. He has a good sense of humor and we like to talk to each other a lot. I've had a lot of good conversations with him already about some of the fundamentals of missionary work, not to mention the usual subjects of favorite colors and movies and such (sidenote: I have come to the frightening realization that I've forgotten much of the plot sequence in The Princess Bride).

The work is going pretty well in the area. Our main baptismal prospects right now are a couple of kids who actively come to activities and church and such, but since they're minors the main obstacle here is parental permission. We also had some surprising success finding this week, mostly through former investigators. One of the people we found yesterday we were having a doorstep conversation with, though it was teetering on the edge of being combative/bashy and he didn't seem interested in listening to us in the first place. However, when I simply gave my testimony about a few things, he opened up a lot more and told us at the end to stop by anytime later (and he gave us a cup's worth of peanuts as a parting gift (delicious)). Following the spirit. It works.

Also, I think mom would like to know this: I've been studying Isaiah daily for the past couple of weeks. I'm only in chapter 4 (after 3 weeks), but I really really like it. I don't know how, but somehow I'm managing to gain a lot of insight from it on a relatively intuitive level. It's rather impressive at how many different layers of meaning you can find in a single passage. It's sad though to think that somebody thought he should be sawed in half. He deserved better.

Peace Out,
Elder West

$14.99 + tax

I picked up this vase at Goodwill today.  I picked it up and carried all around the store...all the while I was debating with myself whether or not it might be worth $14.99 (+ tax).  It was filled to the brim with assorted jewelry, and by assorted, I mean just that.  The top was securely taped, so no digging through to check out the merchandise before paying.  I finally talked myself into shelling out over $15 bucks.  Would it be worth it? I'd have to take it home to find out.

If you think of it in terms of raw material, I feel confident that I came out ahead.  There were a ton of necklaces and bracelets - which I plan to cheerfully cannibalize.

Not all the necklaces are going to turn into something beautiful...some are beyond redemption.

This bracelet will be going either in the trash or back to GW. It looks like it was made from vertebrae that were colored with Easter egg dye.

Keychains, tie tacks, pandas and handcuffs round out the haul. These will be sharing the same fate as the backbone bracelet.

 Why did I get all this crap? Because nothing says "Sisters Craft Weekend" like junk from Goodwill.

Spring Break

Photographic evidence that Bigfoot Danny actually went on vacation with us.

This would go quite well with my globe collection.  Please?

This was the place...for a refreshing soda break.

Elder West is elderwesting

Hola Familia!

I'm using a new strategy of writing this email this week. I decided to
write my letter to President Bubert first, so it could actually be
substantial, and then I just copied it over here and will edit it
accordingly.

Agent P

Also, I've finally decided to put that Agent P notebook to good use
and use it as a little quote book of interesting quotes we hear.
Highlights include the title of this letter (courtesy of Elder George)
and "Do you guys only preach on St. Patrick's Day?"

During weekly planning this past week, it occurred to Elder George that
we needed to drop all of our non-progressing investigators. It was a
difficult decision, but we determined that if any of them wanted to
continue learning that they could try contacting us (one of them has).
As a result, our investigator pool shrank drastically, so we'll be
trying this next week to bring it back up (goal: 10 new
investigators). In retrospect, I think we should have done this
earlier, given that since the size of our investigator pool is limited
(due to time) that the number of people we find cannot be greater than
the number of people we drop/baptize for a given period of time.

A couple weeks ago the mission decided that we should bike three days
a week, to save gas money and have us do more street contacting. We
haven't quite yet made the transition yet (we're planning to fix that
this afternoon), but we've decided in the meantime to do more walking
and parking farther away from appointments and such. Already we've
seen some minor successes here, with a couple of instances where we
street contacted somebody and set up a fixed appointment. Really, for
somebody who started off being scared to talk to random people, I'm
surprised at how easy it is when you know what you're doing.

My Spanish is coming along pretty well. Ever since we've decided that
I should say all my prayers in Spanish, my skills have improved quite
a bit. Other than that, most my Spanish usage comes from street
contacting, and I've noticed that I've been having more success
getting peoples' addresses and such.

Our teaching as a trio has been getting better. When practice-teaching
during companionship study, we've been all teaching together, working
out the smoothness of the transitions and the time-sharing. We're
nowhere near perfect, but we've been getting Elder George to speak
less than 50% of the time during some lessons. Elder Jenson has been
proving himself to be a rather effective teacher, even though in
practices Elder George tends to ask him a question to get him started
("So Elder Jenson, can you please teach the entire first lesson for
us?").

For our two investigators with a baptismal date, we've determined that
one is very solid, and the other one will (probably) need to be
delayed. One has a lot of member-support when we're not around, and
we've been able to meet with him almost every day. Last night we let
him pick who was doing what at the baptism, and he was very excited.
The other person has been harder to make contact with and teach, so
although he is also excited for his baptism, it's unlikely that we'll
be able to teach him all of the lessons on time.

- Elder West

Proof that I've been busy...

Not only have I been caring for four busy grandchildren under the age of nine, I've also been working on a neglected room in Stephanie's house...her second family room...

Before:

The race car bed was not a fixture - Sterling was graciously allowing me to
sleep in his room for a couple of nights.

Oddly placed window, bookcase with strange awning...

After:

Ta-da!!

I'm hoping these will be the only hand prints on the walls.